Hidden Truths
by blackflames8
Summary: Drake, an uprising threat to the Konoha needs to be taken out and it can only be done with the help of two foreigners. The question is, can they be trusted or are they merely spies?
1. A New Mission

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything related to it.

I went back and changed a few things I thought were a bit weak and I changed Shino to Tenten, hope you like it.

Chapter 1: A New Mission

It was quiet in front of the warehouse. It had long since been abandoned after the company had gone bankrupt. The wood that made up the building looked like it was starting to rot.

Fall was upon them and the leaves were constantly falling from the trees causing more work for the already overworked people of the nation.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were standing in the enclosed courtyard waiting for Kakashi to show up.

"Why is he always late? He always does this," Naruto complained.

Sakura looked at him and replied, "I'm sure he has a good reason this time."

"He never has a good reason, Sakura," he retorted. "He just shows up when he wants."

"How about you shut your mouth for a while?"

Naruto turned around and stared harshly at Sasuke.

He was taller than Naruto but barely. His spiky, dark-blue hair stood rigid against the wind. He wore his signature blue shirt with detached sleeves and grey shorts.

"Why don't you say that to my face?" Naruto yelled.

The boy stood there silently, looking at the blonde-haired boy with an expression that was unreadable. "Well because I would still like to be able to hear but with your constant yelling, that is becoming increasingly harder," he finally said.

"Will you two stop fighting," Sakura pleaded.

"Hello team. Getting along as usual?"

It was Kakashi, wearing his jungle green vest with his blue pants and long sleeve shirt. His face, as usual, was mostly hidden behind his mask and forehead protector save for his right eye and his white hair.

"What's your excuse for being late this time? Forgot to stop reading that stupid book?"

"Actually Jiraiya wanted to have a word with me. And you just fail to realize the many aspects of a relationship. Your frequent attempts at Sakura when there plenty of other girls and one that tell likes you, makes you look even more pathetic."

"Pervy Sennin? What would he want to talk with you about?"

"Naruto why don't you just shut up?" Sasuke butted in, "Why don't you worry about your own problems like the fact that your zipper is down."

Naruto looked down and then quickly turned around to adjust his zipper.

"I don't see how we've accomplished one mission. The only sane one of you three is Sakura and she's still obsessing over the idiot who nearly destroyed the Konoha. It still boggles my mind how you could be so foolish as to believe that Orochimaru would give you power."

"As it stands, I still need that power. I still can't beat Itachi. It is my job to defeat him and as long as he lives, it is my job to kill him."

"Blah, blah, blah. Revenge this, revenge that. Why don't you give it a rest," Naruto said, tucking his hands behind his head.

"If you two could at least put aside the fighting, I can tell you about this mission, or as much as I'm allowed."

They all looked at him as if they weren't speaking the same language.

"What do you mean 'only as much' as you're allowed?"

"Very simply put, I am unable to reveal parts of the mission until we are already on our way. Now, this mission is at a higher level than you're used to; an A-class to be exact. However, due to the lack of available Jounin," he looked at Sasuke crossly, "we are forced to use you. This will be an eight-man mission to compensate. The four of us are the first half, and the Fifth has been kind enough to allow you to choose the remaining three."

"Hey wait a minute, that's only seven. Who's the last person?"

"I don't know his name. The Fifth said only that it is a boy about your age."

"Yeah, but I bet even he can't beat me," Naruto blurted out as he grinned widely.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up. The Fifth spoke very highly of this person."

"She's an old hag! She doesn't know what she's talking about."

"Well then I guess she was wrong about you too, then."

Naruto frowned at this comment.

"As I was saying, you all get to choose the other three people you'd like to join us."

"That's easy, Shikamaru, Neji, and Tenten. They aren't on missions either."

"Yeah, we've been through a lot with them and we all know what we're capable of. It would work out in more ways than one."

They all looked expectantly at Sasuke.

"Whatever," he replied impatiently.

"Well, now that that's settled, I will see you three at five-thirty tomorrow morning. I will leave it to you to inform your comrades of the mission and the small amount of detail I have afforded to you."

"But you haven't told us anything," Naruto pointed out.

But Kakashi disappeared, leaving the three of them staring at the wall where he had previously been leaning against.

"I'm going to go tell Shikamaru," Naruto shouted and ran off, hopping the wooden fence that lead to the street.

There was a loud crash followed by an old man screaming Naruto's name.

"Idiot," Sasuke mumbled.

"Well I guess I'll go tell Tenten, so I guess you're going to tell Neji, right?" Sakura asked.

"Whatever."

She looked at him and could see that something was wrong. She thought she knew what and told him, "Look, you shouldn't feel bad about what happened. If I was you, I would have done anything to defeat Itachi."

"I don't regret anything I did. I had a mission, and just like any other, I will do anything to accomplish it. What happens to everyone else isn't my business," he replied monotonously.

"Why are you so cold-hearted?"

"Because the ones I thought I could trust, the ones I looked up to, they betrayed me. And I have no reason to care for anyone but myself.

"If there was anything I learned from Itachi, it's that those close to you are your limiters. The only way to surpass them is to cut all bonds with them, both emotional and physical. You hold no emotional bonds, especially love. Love is for fools."

Sakura stared deeply into his eyes, trying to see if this was all a joke.

"So me and Naruto… you only think of us as limiters? Is that all we are! Just something that holds you back? I used to think you were the best. You were the best in the academy, I looked up to you. Naruto even looked to you. He won't admit it but if it wasn't for you, he wouldn't have been able to get as far as he is now. But not once did you ever slow him down. Because of you, he got stronger. Your bond with him helped him get farther. But you think that people only hold you back?"

Sasuke looked at her darkly; he didn't much like being told he was wrong. "Though your speech was very touching, it doesn't matter to me. You are nothing but a third-rate ninja who lives off the success of your team. That is the only way you survive. Naruto is the same."

"I had respect for you. I loved you. But now I realize that you're nothing but an asshole!"

"Big words for someone so pathetic. You are nothing to me. And if you ever get in my way, I will kill you."

He stood up and disappeared behind the fence. Sakura listened to his footsteps as they trailed away slowly. She didn't understand what had just happened that would make her hate Sasuke so much. It was a feeling she wasn't used to. She had always liked him since they first met.

This was the same person she begged to stay away from Orochimaru. The same person she cried over night after night for three straight years. And now this anger that she felt towards him made no sense to her.

There was a creaking noise from above and she quickly turned to find it. Up on the roof of the abandoned warehouse was a cloaked figure staring at her.

The two looked at each other for a while before the cloaked figure began to walk to the other side of the roof, out of Sakura's line of sight.

She jumped up onto the roof and tried to follow. But as she reached the other side, there was no one there, neither on the roof nor on the streets below. Had she imagined it?

She turned around and went to head back but the rotting wood collapsed beneath her feet. She was falling towards the floor with nothing to grab at; and then she stopped mid-air. Looking around she saw what had stopped her descent.

There was a net, or so it seemed, that had flown out beneath her. And standing in the rafters, was the cloaked person who she had seen. Had he saved her? And how did he get in? There were no doors except from the courtyard they had just been in, and there was no broken glass.

The mystery person grabbed a shuriken and threw it at the rope, cutting it in two and Sakura continued her descent which was luckily only ten feet and she twisted her body so her feet would hit first.

She looked up at the cloaked figure but he was gone.

Outside Shikamaru's house, Naruto was explaining the mission to Shikamaru. Shikamaru had been previously raking leaves and continued to do so even as Naruto broke the news to him.

"Another mission? But I just got back a few days ago," Shikamaru complained.

"Come on. It's an A-class mission, I bet even you couldn't turn up that. You haven't even been on one before so it must be killing you to know how hard it is. Even I've been on an A-class mission--"

"Protecting Princess Koyuki. You already told me and to be quite honest, I don't think I could handle that. What's so important about this mission anyway?"

"Well, actually, Kakashi sensei didn't say much about it except that we leave tomorrow at five-thirty and there's some other person coming, a boy I think. The old hag says he's really good."

Shikamaru stopped raking and stood the rake straight up to rest his chin on it. "Why don't you have any respect for her? Why can't you just call her the Fifth like everyone else?"

"She's over fifty years old! She's a hag."

Shikamaru ignored this comment and muttered to himself. "Well if the Fifth says he's good, it might be worth meeting him. But I wonder why all the mystery? And why wouldn't the Fifth no more about this person? I don't really have a choice though do I? Naruto'd probably annoy me to death if I didn't come."

"You'll come then?"

"I guess. I gotta go prepare then. Dad! I have another mission!" he yelled as he walked into the house, placing the rake at the side of the door.

"But you just got back."

"I tried that already. It's Naruto, he wouldn't give up if I said no."

Naruto smiled at the thought of Shikamaru getting annoyed by him after about an hour or so. But he didn't have the time to joke around; he told Iruka he would meet him at the ramen shop soon.

The night was drawing nearer and the shadows from the fences and trees were becoming longer. The temperature was dropping and the wind seemed to be dying down. The first of the stars were starting to show against the expansive, cloudless sky.

The roads were becoming less occupied and the many houses that lined the street bore signs that families were sitting down for dinner.

The crisp leaves crunched under his feet as he trudged down the street. He decided to take a shortcut because he was already late as it was.

He turned into an alley that had little light to brighten it up, but the shadows weren't completely covering the alley.

It was quiet except for the crunching of the leaves under his feet.

There is a whistling sound but Naruto can't pinpoint it until it stops at the wall. In front of him, there is a kunai in the wall. More whistling, Naruto jumps backwards and avoids the flurry of kunai.

But more come and he spins to avoid them and then dives forward to avoid another group, burying his head in his hands as the last kunai hits the wall.

Silence.

He looks up, he comes nose to blade with a kunai. Attached to the kunai was an explosive note and beneath it was the words "I'd run if I were you" written on it.

Naruto stood up as fast as he could and dashed out of the ally, expecting the tag to explode before he could get out of its radius. He dived into the street and covered his head.

But there was no explosion.

People were staring at him in a bewildered fashion and quickly walked by.

Naruto got to his feet and dusted off his clothes. He shrugged it off and continued towards the ramen shop where he found Iruka already waiting outside the curtain.

As they sat down and ordered their ramen, Iruka began to talk about the previous mission he had been on. "Speaking of which, I heard you're team is on another mission," he added.

"Yeah. Shikamaru, Neji, and Tenten are coming too. And some other guy too, but Kakashi sensei didn't say who it was."

"Well he doesn't know much about him either. Even the Hokage isn't entirely sure what he looks like. I talked with her about him and the only thing she said was that he might be stronger than you and Gaara."

The shop owner placed the two bowls of ramen in front of them and went back to work.

"I don't understand it," Naruto said after eating some of his ramen. "Why would Sasuke risk destroying the entire village just to get to his brother?"

"Sasuke is confused and in a lot of pain. He knows what it's like to not have a family like you; but it's a bit more complicate. He had a family. He had people he cared about, people that cared about him, to have all that taken away is very painful. With you, you never had anything. And you've learned to get by and do the best not to let it affect you. But to have everything taken from you in a heartbeat is unbearable.

"He would do anything to let his family rest in peace. And Orochimaru would do anything to have Sasuke. He used power, the thing Sasuke wished for the most as bait."

"But why would Sasuke believe him?"

"Because the curse seal gave him a small taste of that power, he assumed that if he would give him power just to make a decision that he would give more away."

"But he didn't plan on letting Sasuke get to Itachi without taking over his body. Even I could see that."

"Pain can sometimes cloud your vision. It wasn't his fault."

It was a while before either of them talked. They both had plenty to say, but the subject of Sasuke seemed to be one that neither of them could fully grasp.

"I have to go," Naruto said after he finished the rest of his ramen. "It's getting late and I have to get up really early tomorrow."

"Well this is a first, you actually being prepared."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "I just can't wait to meet this guy."

"Okay. Well I wish you luck tomorrow. I hope you all come back safely."

_Okay, there's the first chapter. I hope you all liked it. I'm hoping to get more reviews than I've been getting with my other stories. I can't stress enough how badly I need reviews. How am I supposed to know what to change if no one tells me?_


	2. An Ally and a Decision

I revised this too and changed the names of both my OCs, I had too many names starting with S and it was getting annoying. It probably made the story less interesting, too; I don't know, I'll let you be the judge.

Chapter 2: An Ally and a Decision

Sakura had just arrived at the village gate. It was still early and the street lights were the only source of light around. She opened the gate and walked through. She was greeted by a bunch of trees and Naruto sitting in the middle of the path.

"How long have you been here for, Naruto? You look like you're still half asleep. You did sleep didn't you?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah I slept, but I wanted to be here earlier, I was hoping this new guy would already be here since we hadn't seen him in the village. I think I left around four."

Sakura looked slightly surprised by this. "So you've been out here for an hour and a half even when Kakashi said we weren't leaving until five-thirty. I wish Kakashi sensei was as energetic as you are."

"What were you two saying about me?" Kakashi asked as he pushed through the bushes by the side of the road.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're on time. This is weird."

"Aren't I always on time?"

Sakura quickly reached into her pouch and pulled out two shurikens, tossing one at each of her comrades.

The two of them disappeared in a whiff of smoke.

"You really are as good as Tsunade said," a voice from off in the trees informed her. How did you know they were fake?"

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

Their was laughter and rustling of branches as the laughter moved to different locations.

"Face me!"

The laughter ceased and she felt a shiver travel up her spine. Off to her side, one of the bushes parted and there stood a man, hunched over and covered in blood.

She held back a scream. She knew this had to be a fake like the others and produced a third shuriken and proceeded to throw it at him.

To her horror, the man faded away and was replaced with Kakashi.

"No!" she yelled and hid her face in her arms.

It was silent. There wasn't any sound from the impact, only the wind whistling through the trees. Sakura looked up to see a bewildered Kakashi standing in front of her, unscathed.

"What's wrong?"

"I threw a shuriken at you. Surely you saw it coming, but how did you dodge it at that distance?"

Kakashi looked more confused than ever. "I just walked through the brush and you swung your arm and screamed."

"But I saw you. I saw the shuriken."

"You never threw anything."

They both turned their heads to look in the direction of the voice. Sitting on one of the branches was a person, half hidden in shadow so that only his mouth showed. Whoever it was throwing a pebble into the air and catching it repeatedly.

"You were under a Genjutsu. Something like that could be the death of your teammate. Lucky for Kakashi that I made you reach into a pocket that didn't exist."

"Thank you. But who are you and what do you want?"

"Don't tell me you don't know. It was only yesterday that you told your team. By the way, they're all coming; they're right around the corner."

Sure enough, no sooner had he finished his sentence than a group of teenagers come around the corner, led proudly by Naruto.

"How did you know? Are you like psychic or something?"

"No. I just saw Naruto, Sasuke, and a bunch of other kids coming this way."

"You know what everyone looks like?"

The boy rubbed the side of his face with his hand. "Please tell me all of you are this dimwitted. You saw me and you didn't even realize it. Or was there something in the sky over the roof? Was that net always there or did you not see me standing in the warehouse?"

"It was you that was on the roof."

"Bravo. I would have never thought you'd guess," he said sarcastically.

"Sorry I'm late; I went around to everyone's house and made sure they were up. I didn't know where you live. Hey Sakura. Who were you talking to?" Naruto said as he walked closer to her and Kakashi.

"Me." The boy replied as he dropped from the tree and landed softly on the ground.

"And you are?" Shikamaru asked.

"Your teammate for this mission."

"So you're the one the old hag was talking about," Naruto cued in.

"She has a name you know, Naruto. Tsunade, in case you forgot."

"I would think you should have more respect for her especially considering where you come from," Kakashi retorted.

"Where am I from that would change what I call her from? So what, I'm American. Got a problem with that?"

"You're American?" Naruto asked.

"Wow, two geniuses. Why don't we make it the whole team seven? Sasuke, don't you have a smart comment?"

Sasuke stood, obviously not listening to a word that was being said.

"Everyone in a line, alphabetical order, Kakashi you two."

"Excuse me but--"

"I gave an order and I expect it to be followed. Hop to it."

He stepped into the light. His green eyes reflected brightly against the lamp that lit up the street. His brown hair looked darker than it was due to the lack of light. He was slightly tanned and wore all black. His pants stopped a few inches before his ankles and his sleeveless shirt clung tightly to his chest. Perhaps his most noticeable feature was the scar that ran diagonally across his face.

He began to walk past the group, past Kakashi then Naruto until he reached Tenten. He turned on his heel and walked back. When he reached Sasuke, he stopped but did not look at him. Instead, he turned to face away from him.

Without notice, the boy turned once more on his heel and thrust his fist at Sasuke.

The fist made contact with Sasuke's face and he fell backwards.

Everyone looked astonished including Kakashi who saw this coming and made an attempt to stop it. His attempt was stopped short by the boy's other hand that was clutched around his wrist.

"Don't try to stop me from doing what I decide to do," he said, turning to look at Kakashi. And in case you're wondering why I did that, I don't tolerate threats. Especially those geared toward girls." He pushed Kakashi's hand away and looked back at Sasuke who was sprawled on the floor.

"What is he talking about, Sasuke?"

"I have no clue," he answered as he got to his feet.

"Oh let me guess, amnesia? How about you tell him what you said to Sakura. I seem to remember you saying that you never regretting almost destroying Konoha something else. What was it again… ah yes, 'If you ever get in my way, I'll kill you'"

"Is this true, Sakura?"

Sakura looked at Sasuke nervously, trying to decide if it was the right thing to say or whether it would just make things worse. She looked over at the mystery kid and heard a voice not unlike his in her head.

_Tell them the truth. He will not hurt you. I'll make sure of it._

This was insane, she was hearing voices but she knew it sounded a lot like Alek's and she looked at him.

He nodded and her mind was made up. "Yes, it's true."

"Then after this mission, we will bring Sasuke before the Hokage and have her decide his punishment. Now, we have other matters to attend to. We must now go over the mission, what will be entailed, what is expected, and what to expect."

"Recently there have been attacks on all of the minor countries. These include the Sound, Waterfall, Rain, and Grass villages. Notice a pattern?"

"They're surrounding us," Shikamaru answered. "They're trying to cut us off from as much help as they can. They're obviously trying to separate us from the rock country as well. They must not have too much man-power or they would be going after larger countries."

"What's your name anyway?" Naruto interrupted.

"If you must know, my name is Alek. What does it matter to you?"

"That's a stupid name."

"Well it's better than what your name means. Spirals, in case no one told you. By the way, you should use the Kyubi's chakra more often. When you do, it puts a strain on him and makes him easier to control."

"How did you know?"

"I know everything I need to know. Getting back to the task at hand, why would they want to separate us from the rock village? That is our mission. We have to sneak past the enemy lines and into the rock village. We have an ally waiting on the other side that will help us once we're there."

"This is going to be hard to do. Sneaking eight people through enemy territory."

"Yes. This is why the mission is so dangerous. But we have a plan. My information tells me that this group has overlooked a village. Just one, but even this could be risky. We are not in alliance with this country. The Fire country would not easily let us pass without letting all hell break loose."

"Is there any other options?"

"Not unless you plan on plowing through the enemy's front lines."

Shikamaru lowered himself to his haunches and made a diamond with his hands. A few minutes passed in silence while he thought.

"Not likely. The grass practically welcomed them to take over. They wouldn't help us."

Shikamaru looked up at Alek.

"I can read minds amongst other things."

"I see. But a frontal attack might be the last thing they'd expect. They think they're so powerful that if anyone wanted to get past they'd go around. Surely they would have devoted a small group to each country, undercover so as not to attract unwanted attention."

Alek went to speak but stopped before the words reached his lips. A bird was flying towards them, a peregrine falcon. It landed on Alek's shoulder and rubbed against his cheek.

"Hey Bud. What's the matter? Kay send you?"

The bird cooed softly.

"I see. Is he in trouble?"

The bird cooed again and turned around to show a small backpack attached to its back. Alek reached in and pulled out a small letter.

_They got me man. Came outta nowhere at the last second. Sorry I won't _

_be able to help. By the time this reaches you, I'm toast. You know me though,_

_I'm going out with a bang. Kay's in fire. She'll tell you everything._

_Take care of Bud for me. Time to go. Pray for me._

_Jake_

"I'm afraid we have no choice now. We go to Fire village. Kay's there and my insider is dead. Bet he killed at least fifteen of their Jounin though."

"How?"

"Let's just say he had a very dangerous mind. My team specializes in Kinjutsu."

"But they're illegal."

"That's why they call them Kinjutsu. I am from another village, far away from this place. Our village is the village of Mind. It's a small village, but what we lack in numbers, we regain in power. Most of our jutsus don't give the enemy a chance to move before they're hit."

"I'm not too sure about this whole idea. Something about it just doesn't seem right, like we're missing something."

"Well if you must know, that's because Naruto's already started ahead." He pointed behind him and saw that Naruto had indeed begun to leave without them.

"Let's just get this over with, I'm getting tired of sitting around listening to this idiot," Sasuke remarked.

"You shouldn't be talking, you nearly destroyed this village and for nothing."

"That's enough from both of you," Kakashi said. "Now you will set aside your differences and focus on the mission. From this point on, we must rely on teamwork. And the only way that will happen, is if you cooperate."

"Come on you slowpokes!" Naruto yelled from a distance.

"One thing's for sure, this mission won't be easy."

_And we come to the conclusion of chapter 2. I write to please so tell me what you think about it, even if it's negative, just tell me what to improve on. Give me something to work with. Throw me a frikin' bone here, I have a story, I shall name it something better next time._


	3. First Conflict

I only made moderate revisions to this chapter. Keep in mind, for those who have been following, I changed the names of both my OCs and Shino was switched with Tenten. Sorry about all the confusion but the names were getting on my nerves.

Chapter 3: First Conflict

It was day by now and they had been traveling for several hours, The scenery was flying by as they ran.

"This is taking too long. How far away is this country?" Naruto asked as they sped through the trees.

"It's barely been a day and you're already complaining? I would think someone like you should have a bit more patience than that. At the rate we're going though, it should only be another two days."

"Neji, anyone around us?"

_Byakugan! _"No, all clear. Wait, stop."

They stopped and waited for Neji to say something.

"No! Everyone down!"

They all dropped to the dirt floor below as a fuuma shuriken sliced through the branches above.

"Damn it. How did they get that close without me seeing? They didn't even go through my blind spot."

"Well that doesn't really matter because they're here already."

They all turned around and sure enough, two men were standing there, smiling.

"No way!" Neji yelled.

"Unfortunately, yeah. You see it too don't you?"

"What are you talking about?" Naruto interrupted.

"Their chakra is connected."

"So?"

"That means that they can move chakra from one body to the other based on their needs. And if one of them dies, their chakra goes to the other person. So basically it's like fighting you, Naruto."

"This should be interesting then," Sasuke smiled.

Without a further word, he ran forward.

"Come on kid, bring it."

He threw his fist at the shorter of the two.

The other one grabbed at the air and yanked up. The man flew into the air.

Sasuke saw this as an opportunity and aimed his kick at the other man.

Before Sasuke had reached him, he too was pulled into the air. Sasuke's kick landed on the tree, shattering most of the foundation. He felt a foot kick his back and found his entire body crushed against the tree.

"You are an amateur compared to us." The taller man pushed harder onto Sasuke's back.

"Get off of him you bastard!" Naruto yelled, running toward him.

"Naruto watch out!" Neji called.

He stopped instantly, looked up and jumped backwards as a foot crashed down where he had previously been.

Alek stepped forward and addressed the two enemies. "Who are you people and what do you want?" he asked.

"Our names aren't really important since you'll all be dying soon," the shorter one replied.

"Well then, there's no reason that telling us would be a bad thing."

"Oh well, it's your final day alive, so I'll tell you. My name is Yamamoto and the one crushing your teammate is Matsushita"

"What is with you Japs and long names? How am I supposed to remember your name before I kill you?"

"You are really foolish. Do you think you can actually beat us?"

"Nope, I know I can. But just for the heck of it, you might as well surrender right now."

"And why would I do that?"

"Naruto, I'm surprised you've been able to keep that shadow clone so long," Alek remarked.

"Thanks, I've been perfecting it for a while."

"What are you talking about?"

"You've been so wrapped up in watching them," Sasuke answered, "that you haven't been paying attention to the person under your foot."

Matsushita looked at Sasuke but it wasn't Sasuke anymore. It was Naruto.

"Now, if you don't want a kunai shoved through your forehead, turn around slowly," Sasuke demanded from behind him.

Matsushita spun around and drove a kunai of his own through Sasuke.

"Missed again," he said, as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Try beneath you!" he yelled, reaching up from the ground and grabbing his ankles.

"Brother, stop messing around," Yamamoto said.

"I'm not. I can't keep up with him."

Alek could not help but to smile. "I must admit, you were right, Shikamaru. Your plan not only worked, but they still don't know where Sasuke is.

Matsushita broke free of the hands that bound him to the ground and ran to join his brother.

"Well now that both of you are in place, why don't you come out, Sasuke."

"With pleasure." Behind the two brothers, Sasuke faded into view.

"Now, you will tell us who you work for, and your purpose."

"Heh, you actually think that just because you caught us, we'll talk? We won't tell you anything."

Alek stepped forward and pulled out a kunai. "Is that so? What would you do if I killed your brother?"

"Then I'd become stronger and kill you all."

"You'd like to think you could wouldn't you? Yes, you would. But I think I'd rather spare both of you if possible. I can't make any guarantees though."

"I won't tell you anything," Yamamoto repeated.

"Good. Because you don't have to open your mouth." He took the kunai and ran it over his finger. Blood dripped out slowly.

"Wow, you've managed to cut yourself. Good for you."

He took the bleeding digit and placed it on Yamamoto's forehead. The blood disappeared into his skin and Alek stood motionless for a minute. "I see. Okay Sasuke, kill them."

"But we haven't learned anything about them."

"They work for an organization that goes by the name of Teiku Jurei, takers of life, roughly translated. Jease, how corny could you get?"

"How do you know?"

"Because I can read minds, that's one of my ways and it doesn't require a lot of chakra either. I mostly use it for opponents I don't see fit to even look at. These two are no exceptions. And as an added bonus, I can erase parts of their memory, make them attack their allies, etcetera. And I can even search through memories that they forget about."

"This is bullshit. You're just trying to get more information out of us."

"I didn't stutter. I told Sasuke to kill you."

"A bluff. All just to put pressure on us. It's not working."

"Apparently you didn't here me Sasuke, I said kill them."

"Wait, we'll talk," Matsushita said.

"Am I the only one listening to the words coming out of my mouth? You are no longer necessary. I have all the information I need. Now kill them Sasuke, or I'll do it myself."

"How can I be sure you have everything we need to know? For all I know, you could be working for the same group and just trying to cover up their tracks."

Alek glared harshly at Sasuke and then to each of the men. He reached into his pocket and pulled out another kunai, one on each of his middle fingers, twirling them like windmills. He whipped his fingers forward and they slid off and landed square on Yamamoto and Matsushita's foreheads.

"I told you I'd kill you myself. Looks like you've got no choice. I told you, I know everything these two knew about this organization. Granted it isn't a lot. These two haven't even met the leader and they don't know where the base is."

"We're not going anywhere until you tell us more about yourself. I don't trust you, and I've let it slip thus far, but this is confirming my suspicions," Kakashi explained.

"You want to know about me? Okay, where should I start?"

"Why would a foreigner just happen to be coming through the country as we start a mission? Seems like you planned it."

"In a way, yes. I have been tracking this group for the past eight months, since before they even reached these countries. They tried this very same tactic on one of my allies."

"But why would they try the same thing over here? Were they successful in taking over your ally?"

"No. But then again, our nations are on the whole, stronger than most of yours. To be honest, word of Gaara has reached us and he is probably the equivalent of our average Chuunin."

"Yeah right," Naruto said, disbelievingly.

"I won't say that he couldn't become stronger very easily, but on the other hand, he doesn't no a single Kinjutsu. Your customs ban such jutsus to maintain order, but our culture embraces it. We believe that they are the easiest way to neutralize a threat. Now granted, these could also be used against us, had it not been for another technique developed by certain teams that neutralize all jutsus requiring pure hand-to-hand and melee fighting. So we are good at both.

"The leader of this organization is known as Kim Drake, yes, he's a guy. He was originally from the village of Ice, but after being banned for supposedly creating jutsus that required mass sacrifices, he decided to take revenge as it seems to be the most logical thing to do. He took several of the small countries surrounding them. He eventually gave up after an entire village committed suicide."

"So what interest have you in him? He's out of your region."

"Well, it might have something to do with the fact that he's killed two of my best friends and has my girlfriend under his control. But I'm not sure."

"There's no need for sarcasm," Tenten retorted.

"Then don't question me. If you want me to explain everything, then I suggest we get moving. I suspect they'll be sending another patrol to investigate where these two have gone."

"You seem to know a lot about how they operate," Neji said suspiciously.

"Fine, stay here. With all due respect, I can handle this mission on my own." He walked past the group, broke into a run, and jumped into the trees.

"Do you think we should follow him?" Sakura asked.

"We can't trust him to do this by himself. Until we know more, he is the only person we can trust."

_Well that's chapter three. I hope it was to your liking and I hope that you will continue to follow this story. Please review, I'm not asking for much. Anything, tell me if you thought it was the worst you've ever seen, but tell me why so I can fix that._


	4. Spike’s Partner

Chapter 4: Alek's Partner

It was dank in the pub. None of them really understood why they were here of all places. The air smelled heavily of alcohol and smoke. About three quarters of the building, including the upstairs room, was dedicated to the bar and various gambling games.

It was crowded even for a pub and every table was filled with drunken men who probably didn't even know their tablemates except one in which a single hooded figure sat.

"That'll be her. Hey, Kay. How's it going?"

The hooded figure looked up from the drink in front of her. "I'd prefer if you _not_ use my name."

"Come on, it's not like anyone knows who you are," he said cheerily, pulling as chair out opposite her.

She looked at each of them in turn but her face remained hidden beneath the hood. "Are these idiots our team?"

"Yeah. Not much talent, but it was as much as they could muster after Sasuke's little accident."

"I already explain that it wasn't an accident. I have no regrets for doing that."

"Yeah whatever," the hooded girl replied, "you're just lucky you didn't try such a pathetic attempt on our country. They would have killed you just for how inefficient you were. Stopped by a Jinchuuriki and a love-sick girl, how pathetic. No offense to you, Naruto."

"Why don't we see how good you are," Sasuke said, banging his palms onto the table.

"Fine, blunt end of the kunai to the head. Outside though, I don't want to make a mess in here."

"Why, not? Don't want to lose your beer? Consuming alcohol, you're the pathetic one."

"Oh this?" she asked, pointing to the cup. She picked it up and finished it off.

"No, the one next to it."

"It's called herbal tea, but whatever. Fine, we'll do it in here. Doesn't matter."

"Don't make a mess, we don't want to attract attention," Kakashi urged.

"Whatev, gramps." She stood up and pulled out a kunai.

Sasuke mimicked her and pulled out a kunai of his own, getting into a fighting position.

"I'm waiting. You don't want to make a lady wait do you?"

Sasuke made to move, but stopped. He tried again, but his body wasn't responding.

"Come on. Don't tell the 'Great Sasuke' is afraid to attack. Oh, I forgot, your in one of my Kinjutsus, I always forget to tell people about that." She stepped around the table lazily and walked past Alek. She placed the kunai to Sasuke's head and declared, "I win. Now, if you don't mind, let's get out of here. I have to air my clothes out."

"I'm so sorry about that Sasuke, she has a habit of embarrassing people like that. You're lucky she didn't make you do something stupid, like defeat yourself. That would have stunk."

"What's with the sudden personality change?" Neji asked.

"To tell you the truth, I just like being around a team I know I can trust. It makes me feel at home and I love being home. It sounds stupid, I know but that's just how it is."

"You are so weird," Naruto commented.

"Will the little kids please hurry up, I have better things to do than listen to sandbox chat," Kay called from the other side of the bar.

"Hey, who're you calling a kid?" Naruto asked as he burst out the door.

"Apparently everyone younger and less mature than me in this team. And that's just about everyone except Kakashi."

"Hey, I'm mature," Naruto retorted.

"Oh yeah? What about your sexy no jutsu?" Sakura asked.

Naruto craned his neck around. "I haven't used that technique in a while, now stay out of this."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" she yelled and punched him on the head.

"Judging by the way you look, and your technique, I am definitely older and more mature." She grabbed the rim of her hood and pulled it back.

Underneath was a girl with shoulder-length brunette hair and matching hazel eyes. Her face was thin, but not so much that her cheekbones were visible. She looked to be at least fourteen, almost two years younger than the rest.

"You're younger than all of us, what are you talking about?"

"Actually she's not. She's really in her mid twenties. She doesn't use Gen on her appearance, she's always been that way."

"She could be doing the same thing the old hag's doing," Naruto added.

"I thought I just said she wasn't using a Genjutsu, or weren't you listening?"

"It doesn't matter, he's just an idiot. Why do you all have your forehead protectors on in an unallied nation? I would have thought more of you Kakashi."

"Well it's not like it would matter. Just about everyone in these villages has heard about us, Naruto and Sasuke the most. So if we wanted to conceal our identity, we'd have to waste chakra on Genjutsu. Naruto could do it, but then again, he's never successfully completed one in truth."

"Hey, what about my Kage Bunshin?"

"That's a Ninjutsu."

"How can you tell?"

"I would have thought you'd learn this by now. So for the hundred-thousandth time, a Genjutsu is a mind game you play with your opponent. A Taijutsu is hand-to-hand combat techniques like Rock Lee's. And a Ninjutsu is everything else. Since your technique neither focuses on hand-to-hand combat and doesn't play with your opponent's mind, it is a Ninjutsu."

"That's too confusing."

There were sighs all around followed by silence.

"Well we should get going, surely Naruto's yelling will have woken up half the nation," Kay pointed out.

"We're leaving already?" Shikamaru asked. "We just got here, we need time to relax and find out as much about who we're up against as we can."

"They still don't believe I can use that mind-read jutsu," Alek explained. "We ran into a bit of interference on the way here, a couple of Chuus, nothing I couldn't handle, but it turns out I didn't need to do a thing, just kill them. Shikamaru really is a good strategist. Beat them in about a minute."

"It took that long? Pathetic. How much prep time did you have?"

"About a minute."

"No wonder these nations are getting taken so easily. If this is the best they have, then we're doomed."

"Hey! We're better than you think. And I've got two new techniques," Naruto declared.

"Double Rasengan and Rasengan Shot. Moderately good techniques, but there's another version that's twice as powerful, I'll teach it to you sometime if you're willing to learn."

"How did you know?"

"I told you people this about a thousand times on the way here, we can read minds," Alek replied exasperatedly. "When are you going to believe me?"

"Hey! There you are!"

They all turned to see who was yelling. A man in his thirties seemed to be the culprit. But he had about half the town standing behind him. There were several shinobi among them but it was mostly men in overalls with various farming tools and torches clutched in their hands.

"Okay so only half the town. I was right about the half part wasn't I?"

"Just shut up and get ready to fight," Sasuke demanded. "I don't have time to listen to your little remarks."

"Aww, isn't that cute," she said mockingly. "He's trying to act tough now after he got whooped by a girl."

"I said shut up. I'll take care of these people myself."

"Not that I couldn't kill them in about half a second, but humor me."

He turned slowly toward her, but his face was not as she had remembered it. What appeared to be black fire was streaking across his face. "I don't humor anyone."

"I see you're too pathetic to fight without Orochimaru's curse seal."

He frowned, slightly insulted as the flames dissipated until they disappeared under his shirt. "I don't need anything to beat amateurs like this."

He charged forward into the group of villagers and began his assault. He quickly took out the farmers, narrowly missing one of the pitchforks as it made to stab him.

Next were the ninjas, a slightly more difficult task; there were seven in total. The first, obviously a Genin, was taken out with a single punch, but the rest seemed to be angered by this and came at him hard. They all swung their fists at him at the same time which he ducked under hoping to make them hit each other.

They stopped their fists short and had to readjust themselves, leaving just enough time for Sasuke's counterattack. He stood up and took a couple of swings at the second guy's face and he was down for the count.

One of the men behind Sasuke had regained his posture and jumped forward.

Sasuke wheeled around so that his back was to the man and jumped onto his hands, spinning his body like a corkscrew and pushing into the man's chest and landed on top of him as he fell to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

Another came behind Sasuke and grabbed him by the waist to hold him still. Another came but Sasuke leaned back and kick him hard in the face and kicked off him so he would fall onto the man holding on to him.

The last two came at him from either side, kunai at the ready. Sasuke stood up quickly and prepared for the attack. The one on his right reached him first and lunged his kunai at him.

He side-stepped and grabbed the man's arm. He used the momentum to swing him around and into the other man's kunai and took his fist, still clutched on the kunai, and rammed it into the undamaged man's face. He let go of the man's wrist and watched as the two slipped to the ground in opposite directions.

"Don't you think you got a bit carried away with that last one?" Kay asked. "A bit graphic for the little kiddies don't you think?"

"Tough. I don't care what you think. And if you don't like the way I operate, then get off my back."

"No, it's just that with the small amount of people you've killed, it's amazing that you're so willing to do it. Even I only killed twenty people on my first thirty missions. Yet you do it like you don't care. Very cold-hearted, I like that."

"Take that as a compliment," Alek added. "She barely says anything nice about me even though I tell her how beautiful and strong she is."

"Like I could care."

"You should. If you get on good enough terms with her, I'm sure she'd teach you a Kin or two."

"So what? All that means is I have an easy way out if I don't want to fight."

"There are more than one type of Kin, you know. Not all are about killing your opponent, some are to gather information--"

"I'd rather pry it from their dying lips."

"Good, you'll love some of the Kins she knows then."

"Do you ever address anything by their proper names?" Shikamaru asked.

Alek shifted his attention to Shikamaru and thought about this question. After about ten seconds he replied, "Not really. I'm lazy when it comes to names."

"Enough with the small talk. Let's get going, I'm sure there'll be more, especially with all the noise Sasuke made. Jeaze, I could have taken them all out nice and quietly but nooo. You had to be Mr. Tough and kill them by hand."

"Stop arguing," Kakashi demanded. "We don't have time for it."

_Okay, not much to say about this one. I think I made Kay a bit too weak in terms of description so I revised it along with other parts of this chapter. Please review. I've been at this for over a week and so far I only have 1 review and that's not fair to me._


	5. Spike's Pain

I just finished reviewing this chapter so enjoy. For those that don't know already, I changed my OCs' names and I switched Neji with Tenten. Sorry about the confusion but I realized there were too many S names and not enough girls.

Chapter 5: Alek's Pain

As they sprinted through the woods yet again, they were silent. It was night and there was no need to attract enemies.

The stars were out now and the moon lay dead ahead, lighting up their path. The branches rustled under the team's weight and the constant chirping of crickets and cicadas made for a relaxed mood.

Alek and Kay were at the head of the group while Neji stayed at the back; even at nighttime there was still the possibility of ambush but this would ensure they couldn't make a forward or rear assault. And in this mission, there wasn't any room for mistakes.

They were beginning to slow down in attempts to find a safe place to settle for the night; so far no luck.

After ten minutes or so, they found just the place. Halfway up a ridge was a rock formation that jutted out on an upward angle. Perfect for avoiding detection so that the only people who would have visual access to this area, would be those who came from above.

"We'll rest here for the night," Kay declared as they finally stepped onto the formation.

"It seems suitable but we'll still need a lookout or two," Kakashi added.

"We will be in charge of that," Alek said.

"I don't know if I trust you two alone together."

"You don't have to. But you all need rest. We'll be fine. And what's not to trust? Think we'll let someone get here and risk our lives? Cuz' I doubt that's going to happen. And if you think we'll attack you ourselves, you are wrong again, you are important to the success of this mission," Alek explained.

"And since we also have captaincy, it goes by majority vote. Two against one. Now get some rest. We'll be starting bright and early tomorrow."

Kakashi reluctantly accepted this as fact and began ordering the others to get some rest. They didn't need telling though, they had been running all day since they picked up Kay and they were exhausted.

It wasn't long before they were asleep, they had traveled through almost the entire Fire country that day and even the hard ground felt like a soft bed.

"I don't see why we have to bring them. All they'll do is slow us down," Kay said, kicking her feet impatiently through the air. "Was it even necessary t bring that many? Surely having this many people is a ridiculous number, and when it comes to sneaking, it's going to be even harder. Thank God we haven't run into any resistance, since we can't use our Kinjutsus, it'll just slow us down."

Alek was hanging upside-down off the cliff, hardly listening to anything.

"Hello, I asked a question, where we come from its polite to answer it."

"What? Oh, sorry. I thought we went through this already. They are crucial to the success of the plan. Let's just say I have a feeling they'll be more than useful to us in the end."

"I hope you aren't talking about what I think you're talking about."

"It really doesn't matter what-- he's mine."

Something had dropped through the sky and landed with a crack at the base of the ridge.

"You know I saw him first," Kay said irritably.

"Yeah well you didn't call it." He sighed. "Why do we even bother? To be ninja, I mean. We are at the peak of our health and strength and it's not like there's many people that can challenge us even in our nation. So why do why try?"

"We don't really have a choice. If we are needed, we are required to answer. When I first became a Genin, I was sheltered from this truth; they told me I would be able to leave at my own will, but it was a lie. Deception is the greatest form of power, and they used it to get what they wanted."

"Why can't we just leave, head for another country and start a new life?"

"You know why. They would kill our families and we would be banned from ever returning. Not to mention they'd be looking for us; heavens knows they wouldn't want their techniques getting out. I wish the same sometimes, to just get away, not to be the tool of war."

There was a pause, the distant sounds of the forest were dying down, then getting louder in a never-ending cycle.

"Well I don't have anything to worry about. I wouldn't pressure you into that especially with your husband. He's really nice too and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I got him killed."

"I know you wouldn't do something like that. You know, he considers you one of his own."

"I know, but I don't think even he knows what I have to go through. He has you. Yes, you and him don't always see each other, but deep down, he knows you'll be alright because he knows that if it came to it, I'd sacrifice myself to save you. That's how things work with me, you ma not like it, you may think that I have my whole life ahead of me, but what does that mean to me? More killing, more orders. I don't even care anymore."

"You wouldn't sacrifice yourself for me. I wouldn't let you do that. You're right, I am going to tell you that you have your whole life ahead of you. We both know that you can be great, maybe the best if you work hard enough at it."

"Like that means anything to me. I may say I want to be the best, but I know that all that means is more killing and more responsibility, the two things I want the least of. I just wish I could leave, go somewhere away from everyone and everything, somewhere no one could find me and no one would dare to bother me. They wouldn't be missing much, just another tool."

"You shouldn't talk like that. You're worth far more than that. And who are you to talk about love?"

"There are more than one types of love you know. There is the love that you have for your family, then you have the love for a single person which is most often confused for lust, and then there is the love for another's life. I refer to the latter of the three. I care for the lives of all, even those I am forced to kill. Some might say that this is a weakness, but it isn't. I have long since lost respect for myself but that doesn't mean I can't care for others.

"My dad once said that if you truly love someone, you'd do anything for them; that having someone to protect makes you somehow stronger. I didn't understand what he meant until I watched him die."

He sat up and stared deeply into the forest.

"It was only just a few years ago, when Drake invaded. My parents were on the frontline. My dad was outnumbered three to one, I was hidden in one of the trees watching him proudly fending them off like it was nothing. I always thought he was the strongest person in the world and no one else mattered when he fought against them. I considered it a privilege to watch him fight, I got a lot of my moves from him. He looked over at my mom and saw her backed against the tree I was in, covered in blood. And in front of her was the attacker, poised and ready to deliver the final blow.

"He broke away from the people he was fighting and ran toward her. One of them grabbed him by the arm and he swung him against a tree. The other two grabbed him but he swung his arms forward so fast that they couldn't even hold their footing and they collided. He threw them into the air and slammed his palms into their backs, snapping their spines. By this time the person my mom was fighting had begun to thrust his katana at her. And then next thing I knew, my dad was bent over my mom with the blade jammed into his back."

Kay listened silently, she had never heard this story before and thought it important.

"The man called my father stupid for saving her; he said she was a waste of energy. And suddenly, I lost control of my body. I jumped from the tree screaming at the top of my lungs towards the man. He saw me coming and knocked me onto the ground. My mom screamed my name and begged me to run. I got up and attacked against her wishes. Yet again he knocked me to the ground and kicked me in the side. The pain was unbearable but I didn't care. He told me I should listen to her and run, that I didn't stand a chance against someone as strong as him; he said he could kill me at anytime but I didn't care.

"I lie there on my stomach motionless, until I finally gathered the energy to stagger to my feet. 'You have guts kid, I'll admit that; but you are still no match for me.' I was ready to cry, I was so angry. I looked at my father's lifeless body and I knew what had to be done, this man had to pay. My mom continued to yell for me to leave but I wouldn't. I felt all the pain leave me, fully revitalized and I felt stronger just like my dad said. I felt something inside me that I knew wasn't me. It was feeding off my anger which at that time was beyond my control."

"What happened?"

"I attacked. I could see everything as if it was in slow motion. I realized how fast I was running but made no attempt to stop or even slow down. I reached him before he had the time to look surprised and stopped on the dime. He swung at me but it was about as useless as trying to drop a paper on a fly. I quickly backed out of the way and brought myself forward again so I was at his side with my fist jammed into his gut. My face was expressionless, even I could tell that. After a few seconds of motionlessness the man keeled over from the punch, I guess it hadn't registered before then.

"I swung around and hit him in the head with the back of my hand and he collapsed to the ground. I slammed my foot down on his head and proceeded to press harder. He struggled to get me off him but couldn't and I found I couldn't lift my foot either. I pressed harder and harder; I knew his skull couldn't handle much more. And then… it was over. He was dead, and I had killed my first enemy. The shock of it was intense. I hadn't expected to even be able to lay a hand on him, but somehow I had killed him. I returned to the village with my mom at my side and my dad strapped to my back. I knew he was dead, but he deserved a proper funeral, an honorable one. After the battle was over, one of the Jounin from the battle talked to the Kage and they had me raised to a Chuunin. And that's when I met you and David."

"How come you never mentioned that before?"

"Because it is for that very reason that I am what I am. I hate what I am but I also realized that I can't go back. I knew that if people knew this, they would fear me for what I could do. And even as we speak, your fear of me grows."

"No. You aren't the same--"

"Cut the crap! I read your mind. The fact is that I am unstable and you can see that. All it would take for the eight-tailed demon to come out again would be a person stronger than me, and that person is Closer than some may think."

Kay was in shock, unable to move or say anything. There was a screech from above and she jumped slightly.

Alek looked up as a large bird landed on his shoulder. He stroked the side of its face a few times before coaxing it onto his arm so he could remove the letter from its pouch.

"Hey Bud," she called to the bird. "It's from Jake, right?" she asked, this time addressing Alek.

"Jake is dead."

"What? But this is his bird. It wouldn't leave his side ever."

"He told it to obey me from now on. He died before we even started. He was ambushed. And because of this, I will not let this mission fail." He scanned through the paper and folded it back up. "They have a lead, we must leave at once. Help me wake the others and we'll be on our way."

_Okay, this chapter was more informal as far as purpose goes. It was a bit mushy but I felt it was needed. I was really trying to bring out Alek's background, try to show why he is the way he is. Please review, thanks._


	6. Base Raid Part One

Well I revised this chapter too. For those who still don't know, I switched the OC character names and switched Shino with Tenten. Enjoy and please review.

Chapter 6: Base Raid Part One

"Where are we headed now?" Shikamaru asked, his feet moving swiftly along the ground. This was getting old: run, rest, run, rest; it never ended did it?

"One of our scouts found one of the enemy's bases. We lost contact with him a few days ago and they want us to find his current status. They believe him captured. They also think that we'll be able to scrounge up some Intel on the whereabouts of Drake."

There was a screech high above their heads and they stopped. A massive bird was circling overhead, it was far too large to be native. It touched down in front of them bearing its black chest, a white ring covering the majority of it.

"It's from the Council. This is the fastest bird in the nation, it must be important," Alek observed. He walked up to the bird and circled around to the back and pulled out a large scroll.

The bird took off and Alek opened the scroll and smiled. He picked up four large stones and placed the scroll on the ground, pinning down each corner with the stones.

It was a map, a very detailed map at that. It showed two separate buildings, a watchtower and a fortress of some sort. The fortress was then divided into two smaller buildings with a separate map to show the two floors and a basement.

"Study this map carefully," Kay commanded them. "After we memorize it, the map has to be destroyed; can't afford for the enemy to know we're on to them."

"Any ideas for a plan? Shikamaru? Kakashi?"

They each studied the map more closely.

"I have one," Kakashi declared. "But first tell me how our objectives are supposed to be accomplished."

"Well it would be wise to use as much stealth as possible, but since the information is likely to be heavily guarded along with our scout, it would be better to use a sneak attack. And since they would be able to detect a Kinjutsu, it would be best not to use them."

"I thought so. Okay, here is the plan. We want to hit them fast and hard, take out as many as possible in the shortest amount of time. We'll each split into groups of two. Sasuke, you'll be alone. I want Alek and Naruto together, Kay and Sakura, Neji and Shikamaru, and Tenten and myself. Sasuke, we're counting on you to be a diversion, I want you to…"

**(Note: I'm going to be switching from character to character so unless it says they're together, they're all in their separate teams.)**

Night was falling upon the base and it was almost time to execute the plan. They were all hidden in various areas of the woods around the base. Their orders were simple, or at least the way Kakashi had explained them. Who knew how many guards there were in this place?

The sun was setting painstakingly slowly, as if it wanted them to wait there all night only to rise a few minutes later and reveal their position. But now the final bit of light had receded from the horizon., it was time.

The fortress itself wasn't much to behold especially in terms of defense; there were windows on the bottom floor, definitely poor building planning. The entire place was made of wood and could be blown to smithereens with a few well-placed explosive tags. But that wasn't what they wanted.

Sasuke had carefully made his way up to the top of the watchtower silently as instructed. He slowly lifted the hatch and peered through the crack. There was a pair of feet facing in the opposite direction. He jumped out and the man spun around. "You killed my friends you stupid bastards!" he yelled and charged at the man. He punched him in his gut and then tripped him then ducked down to fight him on the floor.

Outside, the guards had seen this and could here the two exchanging punches. Then it was silent and they waited for someone to stand up. It was the guard, and on his shoulder was the unconscious Sasuke.

"You always get the action," one of the other guards told him.

He smiled. "Yeah, but this kid was nothing, he surprised me that's all. He was definitely a loner though, yelling something about his dead friends. I must have killed them and he thought coming here would be any different from his friends. What kind of idiot raids a base alone?" he replied, dropping Sasuke's body over the edge where it landed with a crack. He smiled again, "I hope that broke his neck, he was still alive, but he'll think twice about coming here next time if he's still alive."

There was a loud smash from below. They all leaned over the edge to see that the wooden gate had been shattered.

"What was that?" one of the guards asked.

The watchtower guard smiled as he ran over the crosswalk toward the rest of them. "That would be my friends!" he yelled as his body transformed into the boy they had seen before and began to take out the closest guard and began towards another.

"The door's been broke," Alek stated. "That's our cue. Now, we each go into a different window. Hopefully the guards will have heard the door and we'll be clear."

Naruto dashed through the clearing and stopped at the window, lifting himself in and looking around for any signs of a lingering ninja. But like Alek had told him, the room was empty.

They darted to the door and opened it slowly. Inside there were a few guards still running out to the courtyard to fight Kay and Sakura who had just annihilated the doors with one of Sakura's freakishly powerful punches.

The last of them filtered out of the room and Alek motioned for Naruto to go through the door. He opened the door the rest of the way and crept in.

Not two steps through the doorway, he was greeted with a piece of cold metal against his throat and a deep voice that said "Nice try. But we aren't as stupid as you think. Did you actually think we'd be so stupid that we couldn't realize a diversion when we see one? You're too obvious."

"Really? Then it looks like you missed another diversion," answered Alek's voice from behind the man.

"How did you get here?"

"I took the stairs," Alek replied sarcastically. "Now if you don't mind, we have an agenda to complete and you aren't a part of it." He grabbed the man by the arm and pulled it away from Naruto's neck and began swinging him around like a rag doll before slamming him into the wall, collapsing the wood and sending him flying into the barracks where he hit into one of the metal poles of a bunk.

"That was a bit loud, don't you think?" Naruto asked.

Alek merely shrugged his shoulders and replied, "It's not like it matters, they'll have enough trouble dealing with the girls to pay attention to a crash."

"Hey, what are you two doing here!"

They turned and realize that the door had been opened and there was another person standing in the doorway. But just short of attacking, a hand reached at the man's shoulder and pulled him back.

Kay's head popped out of the doorway and smiled. "Sorry about that, he was a straggler. They're like running away from us, the little babies." She appeared to be holding back the man as her head was moving back and forth. "Will you stop struggling you idiot, you already lost! Hey! Get your hands off my ass you pervert!" she yelled and disappeared behind the door.

"She's scary," Naruto remarked.

"Nah, she's just a bit crazy. You'll get used to it. But enough interruptions, we're behind schedule."

Kakashi and Tenten had made there way in without a hitch and were waiting patiently in the armory, gathering various weapons they would need later on in the mission.

The door clicked open and in walked Alek followed by Naruto.

"What took you two so long? You're two minutes late as it is and you still have to help us gather weapons," Tenten said, picking up a bundle of kunai.

"We ran into some interference."

"So we heard. Don't you think that was a bit loud? You could have attracted attention," Kakashi scolded them.

"We did, but Kay took care of it."

"You have jeopardized this mission with that little stunt of yours."

"Please, gramps, if we wanted to, this whole base could be destroyed in all of ten seconds. Learn to live a little. What's the point of being a ninja if you can't break the rules a little bit? Or did u not tell your teammates that those who aren't willing to bend the rules are also scum?"

"When I said that, I meant that those who aren't willing to break the rules to help another teammate are scum."

"Same thing, I was just saving Naruto's neck."

They finished getting the weapons they were supposed to get and left the armory and headed out the door. They were standing in a hall and walked straight through a door, then hooked a right and walked to the stairs.

"How you doin' over there Neji?" Shikamaru asked, knocking out another of the attacking guards.

"Can't complain, not much competition though," he replied casually. He jumped to avoid a punch from both sides and landed on their arms, grabbing tight to them and letting himself fall ground-ward sending the two attackees spinning onto opposite benches.

It felt awkward fighting in a mess hall, but it was great if you where outnumbered, plenty of opportunity for the creative mind. The two of them were outnumbered about six to one but this gave them plenty to work off, a missed kick could easily hit another person. Not to mention that most of the opposition was at the Genin level which made it all the more easier.

There were only three of them left now, all they had to do was take out one each and gang up on the third who seemed to be completely unaware of this fight. Either that or he didn't see much use in fighting.

He was reading a book and hadn't yet taken his eyes from it even when Shikamaru had launched one of his comrades at him; he merely raised his fist and gave a hard jab which stopped all the momentum in the person's body and probably snapped his neck.

Shikamaru gave his opponent a series of kicks to his chest and a sharp uppercut to finish him off while Neji simply thrust his palm at the boy's chest and kicked him as he bent down to try to suck the air back into his lungs.

"Hey, you. The one reading the book, come and fight like a man," Shikamaru said.

The boy ignored him and flipped the page of his book.

"Hey, I was talking to you."

"Save your breath, he's not gonna talk," Neji said. He ran toward the boy and brought his leg up to his face.

The boy lifted his hand up and extended a single finger, catching the force of the kick onto it. "You're in my light," he remarked dully.

Neji dropped his foot and brought the other up to the side of his face. The boy sagged to the floor and sat down. Neji took another swipe at his head but the boy flopped onto his side, still not taking his eyes off the book. Neji swung his fist at the boy but he rolled so the back of his head was flat on the ground and his legs, still folded Indian style were parallel to the floor.

He unfolded his legs and grabbed onto Neji's head like a monkey and swung his body in the opposite direction, hurling Neji into a wall. "I told you to get out of my light. It wasn't a difficult task," he said, rolling back over into his reading position.

_The beginning of the base raid has come to a conclusion, for those who haven't noticed. For this chapter and the next, I actually drew out the base and where each team would go, where they'd meet up, in what rooms they'd have to fight, etc. I hope that those of you who have read this chapter enjoyed it. So please review and I'll be finishing up the next chapter shortly._


	7. Base Raid Part Two

Chapter 7: Base Raid Part Two

Everything was going according to plan. Sakura and Kay were fighting off the grunt of the enemy assault and Neji and Shikamaru should be finishing up in the cafeteria and Sasuke should be joining the rest of them in a few moments.

They had just made it up the stairs and had to separate back into their two groups so that Tenten and Kakashi could search the Head's office for any necessary information while Naruto and Alek cleared out the room ahead.

They walked through the door to find a man tumbling down the stairs that led to the roof followed closely by Sasuke. "What took you so long, I'm getting bored already," he said in his usual tone.

"Sorry to keep you waiting your Destructiveness, we were held up by unforeseen events."

"Where are Kakashi and Tenten?" he asked, ignoring Alek's comment.

"Still in the office, we just got here, but as far as I can see, there's no one to fight in here."

"Obviously. Now who's the genius? They all wanted to help their buddies on the roof. Twenty-two in total, all amateurs."

"Does that make you feel better, now that you've had the chance to do some fighting?"

Sasuke stared through the doorway and towards the office, Kakashi and Tenten's outline were barely visible through the frosted glass windows. "Not really, I got so bored when I was fighting I was making it into a game, seeing how many I could throw off the edge. I lost count after the guy before this one," he said pointing to the guard sprawled awkwardly against the wall after his descent down the stairs.

"How many are left on the roof?"

"None," Sasuke replied dully.

"Ruthless. Little Naruto here had a close encounter. Almost got his head cut clean off," he made a gesture with his hand slicing his neck in two.

"That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't sent me in first!" Naruto shouted. "You said the room was clear."

"As I remember, I don't believe I said anything. And besides, if I had gone first, who would have saved me? Surely not you."

"Could you three be a bit quieter?" Kakashi pleaded. "They're not supposed to know we're here, better to surprise them than have them waiting for us at the door."

"What did you find? Anything useful?"

"Nothing. It's almost as if they knew we were coming. Is it possible that they had extracted the knowledge of our arrival from your scout?"

Alek looked at him in a funny way, like they weren't speaking the same language. "Our scouts are trained to never give up information. There is no way they could have gotten that knowledge unless--"

"Unless what?" Kakashi urged.

"Let's get going. Something isn't right, and our answers lie in the basement." he broke into a run and ran around the corner into the next room, a room that, according to the map, was a room filled with traps.

They listened carefully and suddenly heard the sound of something hitting a wall, and then another noise they were unsure of and a loud but muffled crash.

They looked at each other and dashed forward into the room. There were kunai and shuriken all over the place but not a drop of blood, he must have dodged them all. They went into the next room that was also labeled trap on the map but saw that the trap was, well, broken in two. It was a series of sharpened chains but it appeared that they had simply been run through judging by the torn pieces of fabric that were attached to the hanging metal loops.

They ran through this room and came upon another scene of wreckage, a mass of guards lie motionless on the ground. One of them was stuck into the wall which they assumed was what the crashing noise was and went to head down the stairs to the basement but were stopped by Alek, his shirt torn in several places, who pushed past them cursing under his breath.

They followed him and noticed that he was no longer making any attempt at stealth but was instead punching the walls and cursing, muttering something under his breath about a traitor.

They followed him back downstairs and into the courtyard to the opposite wall where he punched the wall so hard it splintered into a large enough hole to walk through.

"Oh hello, Alek," said a boy sitting on top of a pile of their friends who were bound tightly with ropes. The boy in question was reading a book, the front cover so dull it was unreadable.

Off to the side of the hole stood Kay, breathless to say the least.

This was the cafeteria but all the tables had been pushed off to the side and there was a giant clearing. Mixed in with the tables was a group of bodies that had apparently just been thrown over there like the tables.

"You're a traitorous bastard, you know that don't you, Jair?"

The boy shrugged. "It's a living. Plus I'd do anything to piss you off, it brings such joy to my heart," Jair replied, smiling at the sheer audacity of that statement. "I got you a present, sorry I didn't have time to wrap them," he continued, patting Shikamaru's head. "Don't tell me this was the best you could scrounge up? But wait! What's this? The legendary Sasuke Uchiha, lone survivor of the Uchiha massacre. Tell me, how's your brother doing? Oh and how could I miss the famous Naruto Uzumaki aka the Nine Tails Demon Fox. What a pleasant surprise to see both of you working together for a common cause."

"Cut the small talk Jair and put the book away. Fight me, so I can be rid of you."

Jair smiled again, "You always were underestimating me. Had it not been for your little friend, I would have killed you a long time ago. You have told them, haven't you?"

"That's enough, Jair," Kay cut in.

"Ah, nice to see you here too. You aren't still married to that husband of yours. He does know about you and Alek doesn't he?"

"Shut up!"

"Oooh. So defensive. I guess he doesn't know. And judging by the confused looks on these kids faces, they don't know either. Tut, tut. A team doesn't hide secrets from its members. So why don't I let the cat out of the bag for you, since you seem unable to do it yourself."

"I said shut up you no good bastard!" Alek yelled.

"Naruto, you know you and Alek are very much alike. You both possess immense strength that comes out when you need it the most, such as protecting those you care for. You know why, don't you?"

Naruto could feel his muscles tensing up. This guy's voice was frighteningly calm even when faced with outrageous odds.

"Let me summarize it into one word," he said, lifting a single finger into the air. "Bijuus. Within you resides the most powerful of them, but there is one who comes very close to beating Kyuubi. And that demon resides within the body of our beloved Alek. The Eight Tailed Tora(Tiger)!"

"I told you to shut up to low-life, and now, you're going to pay."

"What's the big pussycat gonna do?" Jair replied, curling up into a ball and using a mock-scared voice. "Please!" he said in his normal voice, "You're too pathetic to fight against me, and you can't even use your precious Kinjutsus, or did you forget I invented that spell? You're nothing compared to me."

Alek clenched his fists tightly and his knuckles turned white.

"You're falling into his trap. He's using his mind games. Don't listen to anything he says," Kay warned him. But he wasn't listening.

"Fight me then, you coward!" Naruto yelled. "No one talks about my friends like that!"

Jair smiled and replied, "Your friends? Trust me, Alek is the worst friend on the planet. Not to mention you wouldn't be able to beat me if your life depended on it. But then again, it's my job to kill you all, nothing personal, just orders from Drake himself."

"You will not touch them!" Kay decreed.

"And you're going to stop me? You and your little boyfriend are powerless against me. But just for the sake of elongating your pain, I'll leave you for last so you get to watch me snap their necks.

"Nice try Shikamaru, your Shadow Mimic technique won't work on me. I'm sure you know why that is, don't you? Or do you not know the limitations of your own technique? Let me tell you why, your technique only works on those whose chakra level is less than three times your own, and as I'm sure your aware that the person has to have a shadow. Seeing how I defeat both of those requirements, your technique is useless."

They all looked down at the floor, but as Jair had said, his body cast no shadow.

Jair had turned away to look at Shikamaru and Naruto took this opportunity for what it was worth. He dashed towards Jair, prepared for just about anything. But as it often happens, the bad guy does the least expected thing; he lets Naruto hit him hard in the face.

Slightly shock at this strange behavior, he stared dumbfounded at his opponent who remained unmoved in any way. His eyes were still staring at Shikamaru like Naruto wasn't even there.

After a few long seconds of silence, he spoke, "You know, it is common courtesy to wait until someone is ready to fight before you attack them. I know that isn't what they teach you at the academy, but in the real world, those who show respect towards their enemy often die less painfully. But then again, you shouldn't have attacked at all. What made you think you could hurt me if all four of your friends together couldn't scratch me?"

"Because you hurt my friends, and I don't like it when people do that. Now get off them."

"Naruto back down," Kay pleaded. "You're no match for him."

"Shut up!" he yelled, and he raised his hand. "You may not know, but I swore an oath of pain on this hand. I promised myself that I would never back down ever again. So far, I haven't, and I'm not about to start now."

"A very honorable thing to do," Jair commented, "But also very foolish. For that oath you swore, will now be your downfall."

"I'd rather die trying to save my friends than live fighting against them. What kind of life is that? Fighting the ones you care about the most. Those who choose that path are the ones that die lonely." He turned to look at Sasuke but his gaze was not met.

"I don't care about anyone else; I only care about me and whether or not I get paid. But it was an interesting little speech. It's too bad I'm going to have to cut it short." He faded from view and Naruto heard someone yelling, "Behind you!"

But it was too late; Jair had raised his arm across his face and brought it down with tremendous strength into the back of Naruto's head. He flew across the room and skidded to a halt near the wall.

"He should be out for a while," Jair predicted. But a few seconds later, Naruto moved. He moved slowly at first, getting his arms at his side to push himself up. "You really are as persistent as I'm told. You never know when to give up do you?"

He didn't answer but struggled to his feet, shaking on the way up. "I told you," he finally said, "I don't give up." He turned to face Jair, a determined look passed through his face and he charged.

"Foolish child." Naruto swung his fist at him and felt the impact, but not even a flinch. He stood there motionless, his fist upon Jair's chest.

Jair frown and said, "Is this all the great Naruto can muster? A single punch? I guess all your opponents were weaklings too. Your reputation is a bit ahead of you. I would have expected more from you especially considering you saved an entire village from being destroyed by the all-powerful Sasuke. I guess it was all luck."

Naruto became enraged and began punching Jair repeatedly, each hit harder than the previous, but not even a flinch was gained.

"You might want to take your own life; it'll be a lot less painful. After all, you're all going to die in the end. You, Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura." each one of them flinched at the mention of their name as if it was something cursed. "They're all going to die," he finished slowly. "But I'll make sure you get to watch them all die, everyone in this room from the Konoha. I'll kill Kakashi first, then I'll slit Sasuke's neck. Then I'll snap Neji's neck and shove a kunai through Shikamaru's head. Then I'll break Tenten's back. But I'm going to have fun with Sakura." He smiled wickedly. "Oh it should be interesting. I think I might actually save you for last just so you can watch me torture her."

"If you lay a finger on my friends, I'll kill you!"

Naruto's rage was becoming uncontrollable. He could feel strength surging through his body, like when he had fought Sasuke for the fate of the village, only stronger. He could feel his teeth sharpening in his mouth and could see the red chakra enclosing his body, it was a deeper shade though, almost like blood, but he didn't think it was. He could feel the fox's chakra wrapping itself around him, giving him an artificial tail and long ears.

He attacked, his feet sliding along the wood floor like he had done against Sasuke in the lake, the wood tore up behind him, trying to keep up with his speed. He thrust his fist out at Jair and hit him had in the stomach.

Jair keeled over and Naruto took another swing at him this time with his foot, but was stopped by Jair's hand clasped around his foot.

"That was quite a hit," he admitted. "But you aren't putting enough umph in your hits. And if you manage to survive this, I would recommend you always use the Kyuubi's chakra, it makes it harder to detect the change. And you might want to try and hit harder, because I won't let you get away with a hit like that again." He punched Naruto in the chest and watched him skid backwards.

Naruto charged again but his attack missed. He regained his composure and turned around, making a T with his fingers. "Kage bushin no jutsu!" he yelled and instantly several clones appeared out of thin air.

There was no red chakra covering the real Naruto's body anymore.

"Very impressive, but judging by how few you can produce, I think you're still a bit too weak for my taste."

"You haven't seen half of what I can do."

"Oh yeah? Show me then. Bring it on fox boy."

Naruto and his clones surrounded Jair. They began running around in circles so he couldn't tell one from the other and as they came to a halt, Jair smiled and began laughing.

"What's so funny?" they asked in unison.

"You seem to have forgotten what I said about your chakra being different. Even if you aren't glowing, I can still see the color of your chakra; it's a little ability of mine, not much different from Neji's Byakugan only it's always on." He turned around slowly and faced one of the Narutos. "You're too easy."

The Naruto smiled, "Well I guess there's no point in these clones then," he replied. "It was worth a try." He stopped talking and they all disappeared, leaving Jair surrounded by nothing but smoke.

"Where'd he go?"

"Right here!" Naruto yelled as his hand crashed through the flooring and grabbed at Jair's ankle. The rest of Naruto's body crashed through the wooden flooring and heaved Jair up into the air, then brought him down hard onto the floor. The wood broke beneath his body and revealed the dirt beneath it.

Naruto grabbed at Jair's shirt with both hands and flung him into the air. He watched as he hit the ceiling and fell back down to the ground only to have Naruto stop him midair with a punch. His jaw dropped and he spit up some blood.

"Now who's weak?" Naruto asked in a dark voice. He wasted no time in throwing Jair into the air again and kicking him against the wall where he slumped to the ground.

Naruto began walking towards him but Jair held a hand up to stop him. "It's over. I realize that now. I shouldn't have underestimated you, and I was a fool not to see that. But I am unfortunately left with only two options, to die at your hands, or to run away."

"You had another option."

"No. It wasn't meant that I should join your team. I have betrayed my team and my country. I have placed this mission on the line for nothing. Somehow, I knew in the back of my mind, that it would be this way, dying without honor, without dignity. I am pathetic and I don't deserve to live.

"I am not fit to be on any team. It is my duty, or it should be my duty to protect the wellbeing of all people, and in that I have failed. I will see to it that I cause no further harm to anyone of this world." He reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a kunai. "This is the end for me, the last time you should need to look upon my shameful face." And with that, he raised the kunai and brought it down into his chest.

_Okay, that's the end of chapter 7. I hope you all liked it, it was probably a bit longer than my others but I had to cram a lot into it. Please review, even if its just a sentence long, I've been doing this for over two weeks and some people have more reviews on their first day with only 500 words then I have total. Thanks, and if you have any suggestions, tell me._


	8. This is the Life You Lead

Okay, this is the last time I feel I need to explain this just so everyone's caught up. The OC characters have had their names changed and I have switched Shino and Tenten. It had too many S names, which I'm sure took away from the reading experience, and there just wasn't enough girls.

Chapter 8: This is the Life You Lead

It was nice to finally be able to relax for a day or two, the raid had gone horribly and they weren't able to accomplish either of their objectives. Jair had gone renegade and had all the information they needed burned and committed suicide.

They had found a clearing and set up camp there, setting traps all around to catch intruders. But so far they had only caught Naruto six or seven times; surprisingly enough, most of them he set up himself.

The sun was high in the sky when they finished setting up the tents and getting all the necessary firewood.

Kakashi called over everyone into the center of the campsite and began talking. "As you can all see, we haven't been fairing as well as we should be. Last night, had it not been for Naruto, we could have all been killed. Don't let it go to your head, Naruto," he said, noticing the smile on Naruto's face.

"As such, we need to do some training. Now, I'm sure that Kay and Alek have already mastered this, but it is still important. I will admit, this won't be easy and I can't even guarantee that any of you will succeed in this training before we must move on. This is a lot like tree climbing but it is a lot harder. It focuses on both technique and timing. Now if you will follow me, we will begin."

He led them into the woods and eventually out to the foundation of the ridge that farther down had supported them during their rest.

It was fabled that this ridge that divided the country in half had been the result of a battle between the two greatest shinobi in history but this had never been proved.

At the base of this ridge, Kakashi began talking again. "Your task is simple, get to the top of this ridge and back down. The catch is you can only jump once to get up and once to get down."

"Impossible," Sakura replied hastily.

"That's not all. You can't leave an indent wider than your foot."

"You're a fool," Sasuke replied.

Kakashi looked at him. "I may be, but I wasn't stupid enough to attack the Konoha."

"That's because you're too weak."

"Then that would mean that you could do this without my help. Surely someone of your caliber should know exactly what to do from here. So let's see what you're capable of," he said tauntingly.

Sasuke frowned before turning to face the ridge. He looked up to judge the distance, about forty meters high. He crouched down and focused his chakra into his feet and took a deep breath. He jumped while simultaneously releasing the chakra from his feet and was propelled upward.

He rose higher and higher into the air but could sense he was losing momentum. He wasn't going to reach the top in one shot. He grabbed at the rocks and flung himself over the top.

Looking down at Kakashi, he smiled. But his smile faded when a voice behind him said, "That was pathetic."

He spun around to see Kay standing behind him with her arms crossed. "You not only didn't make it up, but you left a crater about a meter and a half wide at the base of the ridge. And here I thought you were going to make it, silly me."

"How did you get up here so fast?"

"The same way I did," Alek's voice answered from the edge of the cliff. "We jumped like you, only our bodies move at a much faster rate than yours. But so you don't screw up your descent, we'll go slower. Kay, would you do the honors?"

"It would be my pleasure," she replied. She walked around Sasuke and towards the edge of the cliff. "Keep your eyes on me and not my ass, perv. I'm not catching you if you don't do this right." She jumped, doing some curled-up flips before disappearing beneath the jagged cliff.

Sasuke rushed to the edge to see what was happening but all he could see was her continuing her flips before landing softly on the ground. He looked over at Alek who was just smiling and shaking his head.

"She's such a showoff, isn't she?" Alek finally said as he looked at Sasuke's stunned expression. "You did get all that didn't you?"

"What was there to get? She jumped. Perhaps you'd like--"

"Okay good, see you at the bottom," he said hurriedly before jumping off the cliff himself.

_Great, Sasuke thought to himself. Very informal. He sighed and prepared himself for the jump. If he failed, he'd be dead, things were definitely becoming harder: the missions, the training, everything. Every aspect of his life had become more complicated after he was forced back. Most of the grocers wouldn't even let him buy food so he had to disguise himself or have someone else do it for him._

But as he had learned, that wasn't easy either. Sometimes they only got a few of the items on the list and other times they hadn't even come back with his money.

This was what Sasuke chose to be his possible last memory before he plummeted forty meters to the hard ground below.

He took another deep breath and jumped. The wind whistled loudly in his ears as he plummeted rapidly to the ground. Thirty-five meters, thirty, twenty-five, twenty, fifteen. But he could now feel something around his waist, a string possibly but it was hard to tell.

It was slowing his descent and instead spinning him around very fast. Everything was a blur as he spun around, bodies but he could only see Sakura because of her pink hair.

He felt the object unravel itself from around his waist and he continued falling to the ground. He fell hard on his back against the dirt floor. He sat up and looked around, everything was still spinning and he felt dizzy but the feeling eventually passed.

His eyes came to focus and he looked at Alek who was shaking his head disappointedly and wrapping a thin string against the skin of his left arm.

When he finally finished, he pulled his sleeve down over the string and said, "That was another pathetic attempt. What was that supposed to be? Thank your luck I was down here already."

"Well maybe I might have gotten it right if you hadn't jumped before I got to ask you what to do."

"He was too busy looking at your ass," Alek said, looking at Kay.

"I know, but he should have paid attention. I told you he was a perv."

"Why don't you explain to the rest of them what their supposed to be doing?" Kakashi suggested.

"Ok, fine. Listen up because I will not repeat this twice. I am sure you know how to jump, otherwise leave now. Once you have made your way up the cliff, it will be your job to get back down. Me, Alek and Kakashi will be catching anyone who fails to do this correctly, we can't afford to lose a teammate in this place.

"When you make it to the top and jump, as well as when you are getting up to a point in which you would not be able to land without hurting yourself, you will need to learn to basis of this exercise.

"I am sure that all of you no how to control your chakra to allow you to float on water, no? Good. This is a lot harder. The air around us is constantly moving and in more ways than one. You must learn to control your chakra to conform to these movement patterns. I can't really explain it, it's more of a trial and don't break your legs with an error thing."

"That's comforting," Tenten remarked.

"Your welcome. You may begin when you're ready."

They each went to a different section of the wall and began making attempts to get as high as they could without breaking the ground beneath them.

It was difficult at first, most of them were stuck at fifteen meters and weren't going anywhere fast. But Sakura and Tenten seemed to be moving along at a moderate pace.

Alek and Kay were consoling each other on how to help them and finally agreed to help each of them individually.

One by one the two of them went to each of the others and gave them an in-depth explanation as how to accomplish this which seemed to help but just made them get stuck at a higher level.

But Naruto was a different story. Once he had been told what he needed to do, he was surpassing everyone else, going higher each time. He was reaching the thirty-five meter mark while everyone else was struggling to get thirty. He was getting closer to the top with each try and had to apply the proper falling technique.

Sasuke seemed to be frustrated from his embarrassing first attempt in front of everyone and couldn't focus at all. Time and time again he tried but got nowhere. If anything, he was getting worse. Everyone had surpassed him and it was adding to his frustration. And Alek's comments weren't exactly working miracles either. "What happened to your power now, curse boy?" and "It's a shame that you are getting beaten by Naruto, I wonder how it feels." All these thought swimming through his brain as he tried to focus.

He looked over at Naruto but instead found himself face-to-face with Alek. "What do you want?"

"Nothing. I was just wondering why you aren't doing anything. Progress is made by those who work for it. You can't always use the Sharingan and then what'll happen? You'll be just another third-rate ninja."

"I'm getting tired of your smug little comments."

"Oh really?" he asked, leaning against the cliff. "Then stop talking about it and do something. Because quite frankly, I don't have time for complaints. I've had enemies that have complained less about torture than you do. So stop being a little girl and hit me already; if you can that is."

"You two, stop this childish behavior," Kakashi said.

"Stay out of this Kakashi. This is the only way he'll learn to respect me for who I am. He hates me because he knows I am powerful enough to beat Itachi and thinks that by beating me, he will be endowed with such power. That, and my being a Jinchuuriki just makes him hate me more. So why don't I show him what a nice guy I am?"

Sasuke pulled back his fist and threw it at Alek, but in an instant, the boy had dodged the blow and grabbed Sasuke's other arm and spun him around, lifting it against his back. He was forced to his knees and then to his stomach after Alek grabbed his other arm and twisted it behind his back. He was now squatting over Sasuke, applying pressure to his arms.

"I told you anything you try would be futile. You're just wasting my time. To be honest, I wouldn't mind killing you right now," he said calmly. His facial expression was unreadable. "You are nothing to me and I would kill you sooner than Itachi if I felt like it. Let me give you a hint about what lies in your future if you continue this way. You'll grow older, doing nothing but training for your big fight with Itachi, but you'll feel lonely beyond anything you've ever felt. You'll think back on each day that has passed and wished you hadn't made the choices you did.

"But that'll be the least of your worries. Because you aren't the only one after Itachi, and everyone who gets in your way or goes after the same target as you, you will kill. You will lie awake at night, unable to sleep but too tired from your training to move. And you will have rejected all your friends and those who care about you in search of a power that you will one day realize you cannot reach. And then you will sit in your house and reject the company of all, eventually you'll stop eating and taking care of yourself.

"You will rot away in that place and even as you are on your deathbed, you will refuse the help of anyone who offers. And you will still be haunted by Itachi, even after he is long gone, for you did not defeat him. This is the life you have chosen. And let me tell you something. If you think that won't happen, don't take my word for it. But while you lie in your deathbed, you will think back to this day and remember me and what I have told you. It's your choice. This is the life you lead, it isn't my job to choose what you do with it, but learn from the mistakes of the past."

He let go of Sasuke's arms, stood up and walked away.

Sasuke didn't move though. He stayed where he was with his cheek resting softly against the cold dirt and his arms at his sides. "I did it," he heard Naruto yell from on top of the cliff, but he didn't even look up.

_Was he right? he asked himself. Is that really what's going to happen to me? Or is this all just a mind game? One of his little games to get people to do what he wanted? He didn't know._

After a few long minutes, he finally stood up and returned to the campsite, leaving the rest of them to continue their training.


	9. Meeting Drake

Chapter 9: Meeting Drake

Back at the campsite, Sasuke had just sat down. It had been quite a day of embarrassment and he didn't feel like taking anymore of it.

He sat on one of the logs that would eventually serve as a bench during dinner time. He looked down at the ground and then to his hands.

_Was he right about me? Is that all I will become? Nothing more than a common ninja whom I try so hard to distance myself from? These thoughts flashed through his head repeatedly and almost completely different voices, first Alek, then Kay, Kakashi, all of them until it finally came to Naruto._

Inside his head, the blonde-haired boy stared at him harshly, almost mockingly. When his lips parted however, they did not mutter the same questions that had come from the others. This Naruto seemed older, both in appearance and in the deepness of his voice and Sasuke realized that this was the image he had in his mind of what Naruto would look like in later life.

"We were always there for you," he said monotonously. "We wanted to help but you pushed us away. And now look at you, still clinging to the hope that you will one day defeat Itachi. Yet you do not realize that he is dead and has been for a very long time."

And then the voice changed. "You were so stupid to think that you could ever beat him. You aren't fit to kiss his shoe. I think it would be easier just to kill yourself," he grinned evilly.

The voice changed again, this time becoming more serious. "All along you've been searching for Itachi, to kill him, to make him regret what he did to your clan. But in reality, you are just as guilty as he is."

_Stop it!_

"You could have stopped him."

_I said stop!_

"But you were a fool, you were too weak. And you should have died with them."

_Get out of my head!_

But the voice continued to taunt him. "You search so hard to find a way to kill him when it would be as simple as one, two, three. Itachi will die, one way or another, but your family can not rest knowing that the person who betrayed them, the person who wasn't strong enough to save them, is still alive. How could they rest in peace knowing such a pathetic offspring of theirs is still running around, when he should have died a lonnng time ago."

The voice finally subsided, leaving Sasuke on the ground pressing his palms to his ears.

"Ahh, Sasuke Uchiha. So nice to finally get to meet you, I've heard so much about you. But even I did not expect to meet you in person. I guess I would have imagined that you hadn't gone crazy, even after that massacre."

Sasuke's eyes darted open and he jumped to his feet.

Standing on one of the branches of a large tree was a man in a solid black bodysuit that covered every bit of his body except his knuckles and eyes, which were a shade of blue. His eyes seemed a bit soft for a man as did his hand but then again, his voice wasn't much different.

"Who are you?"

"What you don't already know? Well I'll humor you. My name is Drake," he said, dipping into a bow.

"Why are you here?"

"Well I was just checking up on my enemies. It's been a while so I thought I'd drop by. But I can see I'm not wanted around here and it is obvious that you are the only one here so I will leave."

"Where do you think you're going?" asked another voice.

They both turned to see Alek standing on the other side of the clearing with the peregrine falcon on his shoulder with his arms crossed. Behind him stood the rest of the team except for Kay and Kakashi who had circled around unnoticed to surround Drake and Sasuke.

"I thought I was going to leave but since you're all here, I think I'll stay a bit longer. It's been so long hasn't it, Alek?"

"Not a day goes by that I don't think about what you have done to me and what I will do to you when I get my hands on you."

"Now, now. Let's not be hasty. I merely have a few things to say before I go on my way. The first is that Caitlin is perfectly unharmed. And the second thing I will tell you is to turn back. This entire mission is a waste of time. There is no way that you will make it to the end and kill me before you lose your entire team. And that is something I do not wish to happen; even I have respect for those brave enough to take on this mission. But is it really worth getting them killed over?"

"They will not die, but you will."

"That's what you think. But I can assure you, at least one of your teammates will die."

"You talk too much. You know that don't you, traitor?"

"Me? A traitor? Never. In case some of the details got a little confused, which I'm sure they did, let me tell you the real story. What you were probably told was that I was creating jutsus that required mass amounts of sacrifices, weren't you? I'm sure that's the case and I can assure you that that is a lie."

"Get to the point Drake. If you aren't here to fight, then why are you here?" Kay asked.

"All in due time my dear. I was in fact creating new jutsus, that part was correct. But it required the same sacrifice as any other jutsu, chakra."

"Why do I fail to believe you?" Alek asked.

"Because they fooled you into thinking that it was I that was the bad guy. I was only trying to help them, but they only wanted to point a finger at. The mass murders that were occurring around me were in fact caused by me."

"So then it was you."

"So quick to jump to conclusions, and so very rude. Did I interrupt you when you were talking? Anyway, the people that were my test subjects were those oppressed by his Lordship, the one who told you this story. They were a poor group of people who hated life more than you could possibly imagine, yet none of them were even given a knife in which to end it. He wanted them to suffer. They were very depressed, it was a pitiful sight to behold, even shinobi were among these masses.

"I called for no subjects for which to test my jutsu, they came to me seeking death. I just gave it to them. I would consider it euthanasia. But for his Lordship, he considered it wiping out more of his pathetic followers which he would one day either torture to death or, like myself, use them to develop new jutsus. It just so happens that I was one of his loyal subjects, I was very close to him indeed, nothing more than master and commander, but it was a powerful bond.

"One day he was telling me about a jutsu he was trying to develop, one that would have the power to kill large amounts of people without notice. So I took up this study and beat him to perfecting it. There is such a jutsu already known but it creates such a power when it is used that it can be detected and stopped before being completed. This one however, leaves no such precursor, and therefore it is a very valuable technique.

"He blamed these deaths on sacrifice. But as you can probably guess, that wasn't the case. And so he banished me under false pretenses, so I rebelled," he finished, shrugging his shoulders.

"How touching," Alek said mockingly. "It makes me feel like a kid inside, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go shove my finger down my throat."

Drake smiled and lowered his head. "Well I can see talking to you isn't going to do anything for you. But at least give me the pleasure of showing you my face, so you will recognize me when the time comes."

"You know you sound like a girl, don't you?" Naruto asked rudely.

Drake reached for his head with both of his hands, the right one went to the side of his head where it unclipped the fabric hiding his lower face and the left pushing back the top half.

They all held back gasps for what they saw was not the face of a man, as they had all been told, but that of a woman's. Her skin was slightly pale but smooth all the same and her black hair fell below her shoulders and was whipped around when a breeze kicked up, making it cross her face and adding a certain look of deeper femininity than before. She actually looked, what some might consider, (in this case was the entire group of males) hot. "Surprised?" she said, her voice was even softer now that her face guard had dropped off to the side.

"This isn't Drake," Alek said declaratively.

"I'm not?"

"No. You're an imposter. Everyone knows that Drake is a--"

"Guy, yes I know. Like I said, everything you were told was a bit distorted. They wouldn't want to look like fools having everyone know that a woman could go head-to-head with them, it wouldn't seem right."

"Got that right," Naruto said drearily.

"What did you say?" Sakura, Tenten and Kay yelled in unison.

Naruto quickly jumped behind Sasuke and grabbed his sleeve, ready to swing him in front of himself as a shield if they chose to attack.

"Well it looks like Naruto has had some bad run-ins with Sakura," Drake pointed out. "But you must know that not all girls are as idiotic as her. Surely there is someone better that you can go after?"

"Hey!" Sakura yelled.

"'Hey' what?"

"This mind reading thing is getting old. Can't I have a single thought to myself?" Naruto asked.

Drake turned her head slightly to the side, closed her eyes and smiled. "I guess not. You'll get used to it eventually. And yes I did hear that, Sasuke."

Everyone turned to look at Sasuke who blushed slightly.

"You have to just come out and say things like that. You're probably just too afraid of rejection, or it might me because I'm you 'enemy'. But I have done nothing to you and you have done nothing to me, so we aren't enemies yet in my mind at least."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he declared.

"If you say so. But your pants don't agree," she smiled and coughed gently as he turned a deeper shade of red.

"Enough with the romance crap. Why are you here?" Alek asked irritatedly.

"No reason in particular. I guess I just got bored of listening to your girlfriend tell me about how you were going to beat me and save her. Ooh, what's with the sudden mind closure for? Like I don't already know. You're a pimp, in the words of my long departed friend.

"Girlfriend number two over there wasn't quick enough to close her mind," she said pointing a finger palm-up at Kay.

Alek clenched his fist tightly and tried to shake this off. "Why are you attacking these nations for?" he finally asked.

"Well, if you must know, I got bored with our region and decided to come over here to check the prospects, see if any of them would be daring enough to challenge me. Looks like I've found seven and all from the noble Konoha. I was hoping to fight Gaara as well but from what my scouts have told me, he is away in the northern regions. But the real prize is already here. Naruto Uzamaki, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. The one beast more powerful than ten thousand shinobi, or so the story goes."

"Then why don't you two fight and get this over with," Neji suggested.

"Don't put us in a situation where we're at a disadvantage, Neji" Kakashi said. "Now is not the time nor the place."

"He's right," Drake agreed. "But I wouldn't fight in such a place anyway. I prefer a more leveled place where there's nowhere to hide, builds pressure and it's more climactic, I think. In the forest, you could be fighting for days and not even see the person's face.

"Well I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got challengers waiting." She replaced her face mask and disappeared.

"Are all people like that where you come from?" Naruto asked abruptly.

Alek bobbed his head up and down a few times. "Pretty much."

_Sorry it took so long to update, my teachers have been killing me with homework. Hope you liked it though, I kinda made it in a hurry._


	10. Massacre

_(A/N) I know it's been a long while since I updated this but I just would like to set this out before I continue. This chapter and the following chapters will all be first person, it makes it easier on me. Enjoy._

Chapter 10: Massacre

It's late, that I know, but it isn't until I hear a faint twig-snap that I begin to become alert to their plans.

"Kay, we have five minutes before they attack, don't make any attempts to wake the others," I say casually, as if talking about what happened today.

I'm really tired of that Sasuke, he seems to think that he's better than he is. Not that I can blame him, he doesn't have anyone strong enough to put him in check, he's too obsessed with growing strong enough to beat Itachi. He won't, not anytime soon because something he obviously doesn't realize is that he's not the only one who can train.

"Why are you thinking about Sasuke?" Kay asks me.

I look at her, half-forgetting that we can read minds. "I don't know to be honest with you," I answer.

"Stop bullshitting me; we both know that you two have been at each other's throats since day one. Why don't we just get over this? What is it that drives you two to hate each other so much?"

"Petty differences I guess. It's not that I hate him, but that he hates me. I refuse to be around someone so arrogant as him who would turn away his own team for something so stupid as revenge. He tried destroying their entire village just for this purpose. And I've tried digging deeper, it's hard because most of it is about Itachi but apparently the only reason he even stayed around was to kill Naruto."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure really. Something about his Sharingan. His brother told him that the only way he could beat him was if he could acquire the Mangekyou Sharingan. And according to him, it requires that you kill your closest friend. If he really knew anything about that bloodline, he'd realize it's easier than that.

"I remember something about it in our history books. They captured an Uchiha spy and interrogated him about the Sharingan--this was on my own time," I add quickly noticing the confused look on her face. "He was really good or so the book said, he was able to predict everyone's movement and pretty much beat the crap out of a lot our troops.

"When they finally subdued him, they were able to get a lot out of him, and he mentioned something about the first time he used it, he almost died too. He said he focused all his chakra into his eyes and it just happened. But I wouldn't suggest doing that right now Sasuke, we have company. Wake everyone up now. They're going to attack."

I see him sit up and stare at me before he begins to shake the others. They're going to attack in a few seconds and me and Kay have to hold them off until they can get ready. I can sense five of them, all in generally the same area. Normally I would just use a Kinjutsu and kill them all but it would attract way too much attention. I knew Drake wasn't just here to meet us, she was scouting.

"It's time."

"We'll split them, from left to right is A through E. Take A, D, and E attack pattern 209," Kay commands. It's quite amazing, all of her strategies, all 3067 of them are completely original and she knows exactly which one to execute so that it will work perfectly. The pain-in-the-ass part is that I have to memorize all of them. And all the variations to each of these plan are a pain too. I swear, if I couldn't read her mind, I'd be running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

This plan is fairly simple seeing that the enemy is so weak. But there's something about their formation I can't pinpoint. I've seen it before, that's obvious, but I just can't remember what's so special about this formation.

Well I don't have much time to think, I'm within striking distance of target D which after four strikes or so to the chest is sent flying into a tree where I quickly pin him with a wired kunai, he'll be for interrogation.

I check on Kay to make sure I'm not ahead or behind, God knows I'll get a lecture for that. Luckily I'm not and I can continue with phase two. We begin running towards each other and my target, A, and her target, C, are stupid enough to follow while the other sits back and waits to die.

As we pass, she grabs the rope hidden under my sleeve and I grab it to stop the loosening, the result, me being propelled into the air and kicking target A in the face. I let go of the string and my body swings freely above his tumbling form until gravity finally takes its toll and drops me on his neck, crushing his throat and any hope of air he had.

But my flying days aren't over yet as I grab the rope once more and feel Kay yank me over to target E. I must say, she is really strong, I weight what? A hundred and forty pounds?

She pulls the string sideways and spins me while, unbeknownst to target C, the string has wrapped around his neck, it won't strangle or decapitate him, but I think what will happen is worse, at least it looks worse.

The rope has fully unwound itself from my arm and my head collides with target E's chest, slamming him into a tree as well. But on the rope lies the final stage of the plan, a kunai, and although, my back is to it, I know that the string has been pulled all the way around his neck and the kunai, well let's just say if he wakes up, he's going to have one hell of a headache, _if_.

That would suck to wake up with a kunai rammed in the back of your skull. An image flashes through my head of a man, kinda goofy-looking, feeling the back of his head and saying "Not again!" in a very irritated voice as his finger passes over the ring of the kunai.

But a horrific realization returns me to the present world. They were decoys.

I look over at the campsite and see it in chaos. Kakashi, Neji, Naruto, and Sasuke are all still standing but outnumbered about three to one, not exactly favorable odds. I see about fourteen enemies and on each of their foreheads is an insignia. The four elements, four each with the following insignias, fire, water, wind, and earth. They're going to combine the elements to finish them all off at once.

I definitely don't think Kay has a plan for this type of situation.

"What are you waiting for?" she yells to me. "Get your ass moving now!" Okay so I was wrong, but this is going to take more than just what I am capable of normally, these are supposed to be impossible odds and the fact they're elemental users doesn't help the situation much either. _Tora! A little bit of assistance would be nice, and I don't mean just a little so don't get smart with me._

Immediately I feel Tora's chakra wrapping itself around me and everything is slower than normal, perfect. I dash over to the site which I assume takes a grand total of .4 seconds for the entire twenty-seven meter dash and quickly take out a fire elemental.

"Naruto!" I yell over to where he lies on the floor after taking a kick to the stomach. "Use Kyuubi!"

"No!" he replies. He is one stubborn little boy.

"You have to. These are elemental fighters, if they get us all together, they'll kill us in a heartbeat, we can't risk that." I say while taking out an earth elemental. As a single fighter, these guys aren't that good, but they're pushing us closer to each other and if Naruto doesn't want to use Kyuubi, well it might just end with me and him being the only ones alive.

I look around and try to assess the situation but it's hard, there are so many people in such a small space that every other second you've got two people blocking what you're looking at. But I see Tenten and Shikamaru have both been knocked out and Sakura is trying to help them.

Someone is sneaking up on her though, trying to take her out before she can successfully heal them. Time for some action. I begin running towards him but out of the corner of my eye I see Neji flying towards me, so now I have to choose between saving him and saving Sakura. Let's try both.

The only question now is how, I don't have the string so I'll lose speed when I go to break Neji's fall. I'm out of time now so time for something spontaneous, it usually works. I summon chakra into my hands and force it out in Neji's direction which slows him to a stop.

I grab a few shuriken from my stash and throw them at Neji's attackers but I do not slow down. That's another earth and a water, it's really good to take out a whole element all at once but with all the confusion, it's a little easier said than done. This next part is going to be hard, there's a blockage up ahead followed by Sakura and her attacker. Since I won't have time to run around everyone, I'll have to jump over them and land at the right distance so as to kill the fire elemental and not Sakura.

There's no wind and the ground is flat which means all I'll have to do is jump hard enough. I finally figure out how much energy to put in the jump and right on time. I jump, watch the battle from the air and then come crashing down on the fire elemental who expected it about as much as a fly being hit with a newspaper.

By now, Kakashi has taken out two elementals, both wind. That leaves nine to go, eight, Sasuke just took out a water elemental, two of each group.

They are disengaging, or rather focusing on a single target, Naruto. They want to kill him before he can use Kyuubi.

"Use Kyuubi, you idiot!" I yell at the top of my lungs.

The elementals have encircled themselves around him and are performing their seals. Naruto of course is standing there, half confused, half scared like an idiot.

I quickly dig through his mind, searching for something that would anger him enough to use Kyuubi. I find it easily.

"Naruto, you know they're right about how weak and stupid you are. You're nothing but a dropout Ninja not suited to even scrape the dirt from Tsunade's shoes let alone become the Hokage. What makes you think you can be the Hokage if you're too weak to control Kyuubi?"

At once I see the determination in his face, and I can sense Kyuubi. It is ridiculously powerful and I think he isn't even attempting to restrain Kyuubi.

But it is too late, the last of the hand seals have been cast and the four elements now race towards him. Two walls of rock, two jets of water, two jets of wind and two blasts of fire. All of them collide with him at the same time and after everything finally settles, I see Naruto still standing but he then falls to the ground, lifeless.

Everyone has stopped moving including the elementals. There is a long silence broken only by the crackling of a tree that has been set on fire. After the last of the dust has settled, one of the elementals, a fire one and obviously the leader of the group walks cautiously towards Naruto's body. He kicks it quickly then steps back to check if he is faking but there is no response.

I am ready to kill these people but right now, that would be unwise and I see Kakashi make a move but I shake my head to try and dissuade his actions. Luckily he is smart enough to realize that I'm not joking.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sakura with her arms wrapped around herself, tears freely flowing from her eyes. I wish I could comfort her but moving wouldn't be too smart of an idea, they are still in formation which could be bad news anyway.

The leader pulls off his face guard and turns around to look at me. It is hard to see his face but I know for sure that it's a man.

"Long time, no see, eh Alek?" he asks. I recognize his voice and it is scarily familiar. I try to search his mind but he has blocked it off.

"You should know better than to try and read my mind, I'm not as easily fooled as others. But I won't deny you the privilege of seeing my face."

In truth, I'm not really looking forward to seeing his face. The fact that he knows my name and I know his voice tells me that I already know this person. But when he steps into the light of the burning tree, I see nothing familiar about him, maybe I was just imagining it.

"I know you don't recognize my face. When I said it's been a long time, I meant a long time. Let's say we go back to when you were a little boy, around the time Drake invaded. Surely you should have remembered me from that day? You remember the one, I seem to recall your mom yelling for you to run before you were killed. I must say I was very impressed with your performance and for someone who had never killed before, you were ruthless.

"And I was truly inspired by your power, though the way I showed it wouldn't be the way you'd assume I would. I joined the other side, became one of Drake's most loyal servants. I knew that this way, I would one day get to fight the beast that is you. Before that, I was on the same team as your mother and father."

My mouth drops open and I take several steps backwards but only to conceal my hand moving towards a kunai. I know who he is. "Why did you betray our country, David?"

"Ahh, I see you remember my name. And I do believe I told you that already. It was you, your fight made me want to fight you and I knew that I couldn't as an ally, but as an enemy, one of the most respected under Drake's control, I could very easily get to you."

He smiles, but then the smile fades from his face as he seems to sense something, something powerful and I can feel its energy too.

He turns around and stares deeply at Naruto's body and something is emanating from it. Chakra, but how? The chakra is glowing brightly, red and very brightly. The body has begun to move and eventually floats into an upward position, his face still turned to the side as he had fallen.

This time it is David who steps backwards and raises his hands, ready to protect himself. "What are you?" he asks.

When Naruto turns his head, it is so fast that an afterimage gives him the of having two heads. His face has changed too, I have already searched Sasuke's mind and seen this before, but it seems deeper, more feral. I am expecting for him to attack immediately but instead he…growls, really loudly and though it is a bit odd, it's very intimidating. He isn't holding Kyuubi back, this could be dangerous.

The others surround him again and begin to use their jutsus again but Naruto makes no move. Once again, the elements race towards him, but something tells me this will be different.

When the dust clears, Naruto has disappeared. But he was there just a second ago, there is no way he could have dodged even with how fast he is now.

I find myself very wrong when a figure crashes down on one of the elementalists. I think it's safe to say, judging by the gush of blood and the large crater, that this guy is dead. Another runs towards him and is killed by a punch to the face, the next is sent soaring by a kick.

The rest are running towards him at the same time, maybe to collapse on him but it won't do any good. Before they reach him, he has disappeared and reappeared behind them. Being that they are really close together, he can kill them all with a single blow. He brings his arm across his body and it begins to glow a very deep red before it disappears and reappears on his other side.

The bodies split in half and fall to the ground in opposite directions. It is this that sends a gasp of horror from my lips and though I have seen worse, the shear power of this monster is frightening.

I look around and note the same horrified expression on everyone's face. But when I turn back, I see David running and for a second I believe he will, but Naruto now stands in his way. He tries to stop and run a different direction but this path is already cut off.

Now Naruto is behind him, which I'm not sure is a good thing or bad. He pulls his fist back and lunges it forward at speeds I can't keep up with. The next thing I know, this person, this traitor has Naruto's fist through his chest, but it appears he's still alive. "No one hurts my friends and gets away with it," I hear him mutter and then his fist retreats from the body which falls to the ground, undoubtedly dead.

The chakra recedes but Naruto is still red, covered in the blood of eight enemies. It was a massacre and now that it's over, there is an awkward silence and there is no telling how long it will last.

This was surely an amazing feat even by my standards, but this creature will die. I'll make sure of it.

_That's the end of chapter 10. Um…yeah. I was really trying to bring Kyuubi out, not all the way but enough so that I know how to do it in the future. Tell me if it was bad._


End file.
